Teacher education towards teacher (and learner) autonomy: what can be learnt from teacher development practices?

Abstract

Teacher education towards teacher and learner autonomy is an ideological, value-laden choice whose purpose and outcomes need to be continuously scrutinised. The authors present three case studies where pre-service student teacher development practices were investigated, and discuss their value and shortcomings as regards their transformative direction. Our experience shows that criticality and role democratisation are difficult to achieve in this context, and that we need to develop further a scholarship of teacher education, as a way to uncover the forces that impinge upon it and to envision new possibilities that best serve the interests of teacher educators, teachers and learners.